Mum who tripped over in garden while playing with her children forced to have leg amputated

Tripping over while playing with kids is something I'm sure millions of parents have done over the years, but things took a shocking turn for one mum who was left having to have her leg amputated after she dislocated her knee.

Deanna Crump was doing what loads of parents do every day - running around with her children, Isaac, one, and Jerry, three - when she tripped and was left in 'extreme pain' on 14 August.

She described her leg as just 'hanging there' after the incident, so the family called an ambulance to take her to hospital.

"My husband, Jerry, 38, was at home with the kids, it wasn't like he could pack the car and take them," Deanna explained.

When she first got to the hospital, doctors tried 'anything and everything they could' to get the pulse back in Deanna's foot.

Medics determined Deanna had fractured both bones that connect to her knee in the fall, leaving her with multiple torn ligaments and damaged arteries.

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She underwent emergency surgery to try and get the blood flowing back into her leg, but during the procedure doctors discovered Deanna also had blood clots. An operation to remove them proved unsuccessful, and wasn’t until her third operation that medics were successful in repairing Deanna's arteries, and the mum regained the pulse and blood flow in her leg and foot.

However, complications during the process meant that Deanna began to bleed internally, resulting in another surgery during which a doctor accidentally nipped an artery in her stomach. The mum lost so much blood that she had to undergo a transfusion, and she once again lost the pulse in her leg and foot.

Her foot and toes started 'turning black', and the mum was told her leg was 'dying' as blood stopped flowing to it.

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Deanna was transferred to Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, US, but doctors said there was 'nothing they could do'.

"My foot and toes were turning black, and my leg was dead. They said they would either have to amputate above or below the knee - they decided above the knee is what they had to amputate," Deanna recalled.

Just 45 minutes after she was given the news, Deanna was rushed to surgery.

More than a month on, she is still 'in pain every day', though she remembers being 'very happy' when she was able to get up and out of bed at the hospital.

"When I got home, I had a few bad days at first, lying in bed all day and crying but over the last week or so I am starting to feel better, getting up and going outside again with my family. Right now, I am on the rollercoaster ride going up, I can finally look myself in the mirror and I didn't look at it for two days after the surgery."

Deanna now does physical therapy twice a week and is expected to be fitted with a prosthetic by the end of the year. The family has set up a GoFundMe page to help fund house renovations, including a ramp, and a walker to help Deanna get around.

"We have raised more than $18k (£16,000) so far," she said, adding: "The money will go towards making my car hand accessible when I can start driving, making my house more accessible - probably taking a wall down so I can get around easier and creating a new front porch. There is no end cap, everything we have gotten so far we have greatly appreciated."